The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

A California native recalls
coming-of-age in the 1960s, the deaths of her parents and her Muslim
ex-husband, and many travels in this debut memoir.

Baldwin was born into privilege, the
daughter of a handsome, well-known architect with a showpiece home in a
Southern California beach community. She details how this idyllic existence
soon disintegrated, however, in part due to her father’s drinking and
infidelity. She and her sister then lived with their mother in Palm Springs but
also regularly visited their bon vivant father, remarried to another heavy
drinker with her own children. Baldwin’s stepsister committed suicide, a
shocking event that contributed to Baldwin’s entering an early marriage with
the son of a wealthy family. The young couple hit the road in a Volkswagen Bus,
delving into psychedelic drugs and other 1960s happenings in Haight-Ashbury,
Guadalajara, and elsewhere. The marriage eventually dissolved, leaving Baldwin
to raise her son alone. At this halfway point of the memoir, Baldwin skips
ahead 40 years and writes about the deaths of her parents and her ex, rewinding
to previous events in between, including when Baldwin moved to Mexico. She
stayed in touch with her ex while continuing to live an itinerant existence,
including in Morocco, and ultimately converted to Islam. Baldwin remembers her
stepsister again near the end of her memoir, as well as others she lost,
noting, “And in the imaginary landscape of memory and projection, all the
ghosts dance free.” Baldwin’s beautifully observed memoir captures the early
1960s spirit: “we were the nation’s children, swallowing power chemicals to
discover ancient roots. We crawled from the sea as single-celled organisms and
witnessed the birth of complexity.” She also provides touching tableaux of
dealing with death and accepting the flaws of loved ones. This impressionistic
memoir skims over some potentially interesting subjects, with little detail
provided about Baldwin’s second marriage or her financial situation, which
apparently allowed for continued travels around the world. Overall, however, it’s
an evocative, memorable memoir.

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